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Definition of superpower in US English:

superpower

noun

A very powerful and influential nation (used especially with reference to the US and the former Soviet Union when these were perceived as the two most powerful nations in the world).

‘It does not become an economic superpower but it does become a ‘newly industrialized country’, like Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.’

‘The United States is unquestionably the world's only military superpower, but this is not the case in economic terms.’

‘Efforts to greatly expand education could determine whether India is a future economic superpower or if it will be burdened with the world's biggest population of poor illiterates.’

‘When Bobby Fischer met Boris Spassky at the 1972 World Chess Championship, the event was redolent with the superpower politics of the Cold War.’

‘The first occasion was the collapse of the Soviet superpower enemy and of Communism as an ideology.’

‘The Cold War is over: the strategic forces of the superpowers are standing down while their nuclear arsenals are shrinking dramatically.’

‘Not long before I was born, the country had won a big war, had become a superpower, and had aggressively begun to insert itself into the international landscape.’

‘If you're looking to find the next economic superpower, you have to realize that most emerging markets stay emerging markets.’

‘The audience was unsure of what would happen to him just as Americans are unsure of what will happen to them entering the second millennium as the world's only financially and culturally dominant superpower.’

‘Instead of naming that government, let's just call it government X. Government X has decided that it should be the world's only superpower and that it should stand in judgment over all countries in the world.’

‘It is the kind of behavior that historically has caused nations to unite against previous superpowers, from the Roman Empire to Britain.’

‘It is very difficult to be capitalist when there is a communist superpower invading most of Eastern Europe and trying to do the same in Africa and South America.’

‘The end of the Cold War and the emergence of the United States as the only superpower raised several questions concerning the direction of the country's foreign policy.’

‘Another commercial row between two of the world's economic superpowers involves a facet of America's tax code.’

‘As the Cold War developed, the two superpowers jockeyed for position.’

‘One of the good things about being a superpower is that countries the world over want to tie their economic fortunes to yours.’

‘Thus, China's development as a superpower is beginning to concern its neighbours and the USA.’

‘In India, though, citizens believe the millennium marks a new era in which their country will emerge as a world superpower.’

‘But what is also clear from this action is how Bosnia and Herzegovina from a powerful state that once was a part of sovereign Yugoslavia, has slid down so steeply to become a fragile, vulnerable state at the mercy of the world's superpower.’

‘Third, Beijing is likely to emerge as an exporting superpower, aggravating America's trade deficit and fanning protectionist pressures in a slumping world economy.’